Name: The Weight of a Soul
ISBN: 9781635830446

Elizabeth Tammi

When her sister is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Lena strikes a gruesome deal with the Norse gods to bring her back and finds herself in the middle of an impending doomsday--all while discovering dangerous secrets about her sister's identity.

The Weight of a Soul

Maria

I received an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. 

This is a solid 3 star read for me. It was enjoyable, although I have to admit, not as memorable as I’d hoped it would be. I was drawn in by the synopsis from the second I read it. I haven’t seen that many YA books about Norse Mythology and I was intrigued. The fact that the plot promised a very interesting family dynamic was also a plus for me. That being said, it didn’t really hook me in as I’d anticipated. 

So what is this story about? The book follows Lena, the daughter of the clan’s chief, who, after the sudden death of her sister, makes a pact with the goddess Hela to try and bring Fressa back to life. Sounds very promising, right?

Here’s the things that I enjoyed: 
- the writing style was immersive and very good at detailing the emotional side of the story. 
- Grief is a central part of this story, and I think it’s done rather well (with some exceptions, which I will detail later)
- I loved the details about the gods, and just the overall mythology of the story, although I feel like it could have been touched upon in more depth. 

That being said, I feel like there’s a lot that didn’t work for me as well as I would have liked: 
- the story suffers from a very weird pacing. Everything happens quite fast for the first 100 pages or so, which was both great and a bit annoying, as I had trouble keeping up with all the events. But then the pace slows down significantly and it kind of lags. The plot too feels a bit disjointed.
- the characters themselves were enjoyable, although there is a lack of characterisation. They all fell kind of flat for me, and weren’t exactly memorable. Even the relationship between the sisters, which I think posed great potential, seemed to suffer from a huge ‘telling instead of showing’ situation. While I was immersed in Lena’s grief, I found it hard to actually feel her pain because there was little about both sisters that left an impression on me. Same goes for all the other characters, they all just kind of blurred into the background, not really catching my attention in any way.

Overall an enjoyable read, but I was expecting a more in-depth look into both grief and its effects on the characters, and the mythology.

Sheila Goicea

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Flux Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! In no way does this affect my rating or review.



All included quotes have been taken from an ARC and may not match the finished publication. 

Content Warning: Death, Murder, Conspiracy, Arranged/Forced Marriage, Assisted Suicide


  Lena realized that just as she had always expected the summer to stay, she had always expected her sister to be at her side. Because for her whole life, the summer meant sunlight--always--with no unexpected night cutting through it. Her sister had fallen asleep each night across from her, and Lena assumed she would wake with her each morning.

How do you like your Norse stories? I like mine hearty. The Weight of a Soul is certainly that. It delivers a tale of young love, Norse gods and goddesses, and fate with strong allusions to impending doom. 

The story centers around two sisters who are daughters to the clan chief, Fredrik. Magdalena (Lena) and Fressa are sisters, as well as best friends. Lena is the eldest, and has studied all her life to become the next town healer and eventual leader. Fressa, conversely, has been brought up with the blade, and is known to be very skilled with it. 

Fressa, young and in love with Amal, is found dead shortly after her father returns from one of his year-long raids. The unhappy reunion proves even more bitter, as their father denies Fressa’s engagement to Amal, revealing that Amal was betrothed to Lena since the moment he arrived in the clan from Baghdad. Lena, Fressa, and Amal are all crushed by the news. Lena certainly doesn’t want to marry a man whom she sees as a brother, and one who is already, in his heart, devoted to her sister. After the engagement is broken off, Lena finds Fressa dead in the woods. As her world turns upside-down, Lena realizes at the loss of her dearest companion that there are larger forces at play, and each have a stake in what develops in the lives of these villagers.

  Only one thread of thought allowed itself clarity within her, and it was the knowledge that Fressa’s death had coincided with the alarming occurrences. The blade and the darkness were tied to her sister, somehow. Lena knew it. A blade of light, a sky of black. And her sister, between them--dead.
 
From the moment Lena discovers her sister’s body, she knows that something is amiss. The oddities began when their father gave Fressa a blade after he returned from his raid. The blade, which seemed no more than ordinary, transformed in Fressa’s hands. Little did Lena know that this blade would lead her down a dark path to strike a deal with Hela, the goddess of death, in order to restore her sister back from the dead. Lena, desperate to return balance to her world, begins living a second life in order to appease the goddess’ demands. Through these escapades, Lena discovers that she isn’t alone, and is being watched.

  Lena nodded, urging him on. Her chest thrilled at the reminder that Fressa’s capability with this blade marked her as different--she was either blessed or cursed by their gods, and she had not lived long enough to find out which one it would be.
 
After Fressa’s death, Lena and Amal’s mothers see no point in delaying the marriage between her and Amal. Desperate to stop the amalgamation, Lena begins to enact Hela’s plan, and therefore, forsakes herself in doing so. The further Lena travels down the path to regain her sister, the more she loses herself, and the truth that she does matter.

  But remembering what the initial intention had been for Lena and Amal, and knowing how hard Amal had recoiled and raged against it, all without Lena ever knowing...it hurt. Deep, penetrating, and almost tender in its unexpectedness. She had never wanted Amal. She certainly did not want him now.

As their wedding day approaches, Lena spirals into despair. This portion of the story is where the only major hiccup occurs in this book. While the plot moves along steadily for the first third of the book, the middle slows down extremely. This is mainly due to the fact that it reflects the tone of Lena, and what she is going through. The entire tone of the story shifts into a heavy-ladened monologue of Lena’s suffering through this difficult situation that her station is forcing her into.
 
  They have made you a murderer.

While I didn’t exactly connect with any of the characters, I connected with Lena’s deep emotions throughout this entire story. The choices she made, however very wrong, I could understand the place where she was at and the exacerbation she felt. (I would NEVER condone murder, so don’t misunderstand me, here!) Caught between her despair and loneliness, she does everything she can to appeal to Hela, and virtually sacrifices her sanctity to do so. Her character reflects a sort of martyr--not in the definition, but more in the sense that she’d sacrifice everything for her sister. This show of devotion to her sister is touching, despite the terrible choices she makes in the pursuit.

I didn’t like that Lena never actually emerges from her dreary state. She continues to spiral downwards until she is basically put out of her misery by another. It is until this point that she fails to notice that she has any self-worth, and is where the story “lost” my ardor. While this aspect was lost on me, I still appreciated the process, and the insight into Lena’s experience even while she chose the dangerous and damaging path that she did. 

There was another topic touched upon that I really appreciated, which was the inclusiveness upheld within the clan itself. Amal, being an “outsider” at birth, has and is treated as an equal to those who were born into the clan. Several times, this statute is cleared noted, and those who do not agree with accepting others would be punished for disagreeing.

  You know well enough that clans are not of blood, but of chosen and championed bonds. Many of us come from lands far from this valley, found from trade or family or travel. The sole thread weaving us is the choice we made, and continue to make each day, to each other. If you feel otherwise, we will certainly be glad to discontinue your rations.
 
Despite what I discussed about Lena’s character, I did like this book. I liked how real it felt, even if it was Lena’s desperate despair that I sensed. In all honesty, I ached for her character, and wished Because she never really grew from that, I’m only rating this 3.5 stars. I was rooting for her to, despite the inevitable pain, grow through her experience. Instead, she continued down a destructive path until someone literally made her stop upon her own request. It was at this point that she realized that she had some value--more value than she ever realized.

Vulgarity: None.
Sexual content: There is a scene where Lena plans to sleep with a man (not really) so that she can kill him, but her plan almost goes awry and he almost succeeds.
Violence: Moderate, surrounding the topics listed in the content warning above.

My Rating: ★★★1/2​

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Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Author: Elizabeth Tammi

Book Series: Standalone (please Elizabeth Tammi make another book in this series?)

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: December 3, 2019

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (sexual content, almost rape TW, murder, violence, gore, Loki)

Publisher: Flux

Pages: 320

Amazon Link

Synopsis: When Lena's younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should've lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister.

But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family, and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction.

Still, with her sister's life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She's willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?

Review: Holy cow this book was AMAZING! I loved the characters, the writing was well done, and the plot was so interesting from start to finish. The pacing was also perfection for me and I finished this book in about 5 hours. The book had me crying most of the way through and I loved how the author weaved in Norse mythology all around the book. It really felt like a true Viking book.

The only downside is that I want a second book. Now. More Loki and more Fressa!

Verdict: Definitely a book you can’t put down!

Karolina

Magdalena is the oldest daughter of the tribe’s chief. As her father is away, she spends most of her time with her younger sister Fressa and her best friend Amal, which is apparently in love with her sister. She couldn’t be happier for them when they announced their engagement. They got already approval of Nana, Amal’s mother but it was a harder task to be approved by the father of a girl. When her father finally came back to his tribe, he wasn’t surprised but also wasn’t happy about the engagement of his daughter. Most of all because Amal was promised already to someone’s else. Fressa devastated run away from her family. Lena after the argument with her parents followed her sister but as she finally found her it was too late. Her sister was dead. 

Lena couldn’t resign to live without her little sister. She was ready to do everything to bring her sister back. She went to beg the goddess Hela to give her sister back. Unfortunately, her sister wasn’t taken by Hela but by the Father of all – Odin to Valhalla. To be able to bring her sister back to life from there, she had to give him the soul the warriors as good as her sister was. She agreed to the deal and began a hunt. 

My thoughts: 

I think I have as many things I liked and hated in this book. The concept of the story was very good and interesting. I was very excited to read it last month and I had a lot of expectations, so I was very disappointed with the main character of the book when I got to know her better through the book. As much as I liked her at first, I started to hate her in less than half of the book. At first, I thought she is kind of person who would do everything just to keep her family happy and save but with the time I saw that all she does is very selfish. She wanted her sister back nothing else mattered for her. She was able to hurt other people just so she could be happy at the end. She isn’t the only one who behaved like this. Amal the fiancé of Fressa as much as he was saying he loved her, he started to care more about becoming a chief than about a death of the love of his life. 

My favorite part of the book was the gods pictured in it. I felt strongly the Marvel vibe when I first saw the names of Loki, Hela, and Odin in the story. Hela and Loki were perfectly pictured, and their characters were shown as I had imagined. They are the power that steers all the decisions of the characters in the book. People don’t even know that they are being manipulated in everything they do, especially Lena. They had everything in control the whole time and reached their goals at the end. 

I can’t say that the book was bad because it was very well written, and the idea was great but maybe it just wasn’t a story for me. It’s very easy for me to get irritated by the characters so maybe that’s why I couldn’t enjoy the book as much as other people. 

I would like to thank NetGalley, Flux and Elizabeth Tammi for providing my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Ariel Duke

As someone that is very familiar with Norse mythology, this book was very enjoyable. I loved the focus on the sister relationship and the strong female characters represented throughout. The book took me on a wild ride as I tried to guess what would serve as the ultimate solution for Lena. The influence of the gods in their affairs seemed to fit with the existing mythology and I was not able to guess the conclusion until very close to the conclusion of the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys to read about strong female leads with a bit of Norse mythology thrown in.

Leelynn Brady

Death, Sexual Assault (near rape), Murder,
Violence



Bisexual, Chinese (minor character)

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Fantastic Flying Book Club, Netgalley, and Flux for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Okay like I was mentioning in the beginning, I was so freaking not expecting this to be a Norse mythology saturated book that didn’t fully involve Valkyries because most of the ones that I read were about them. This one got so interesting because it dealt with death, but more on the human side and what someone would do in order to save someone that they love with all of their lives. What kind of deal would you take in order to save them?

I will say that I was extremely sad at how little we got to learn about Fressa before she ends up being killed under mysterious circumstances – Not a spoiler FYI, it’s in the synopsis – and I was honestly dying to see more of her before that! It seemed like it was getting good with Fressa and then all of a sudden she’s just dead. And no real cause of death that could be found on the body.

Lena – full name Magdalena – was extremely broken after finding her sister dead. And I could totally understand it because right before that happened, there was really bad drama between her and their family. All because of the responsibilities of being a Chief’s daughter and all that. Ugh, I hate rules.

But anyway, after finding her sister dead without any explanation, she and her mother completely shut down. Her father goes off to blame some other clan for Fressa’s death even though he literally just got back from a year of being away from home, and that’s the closest to being normal that this whole family can feel. Lena ends up somehow meeting Hela, the Goddess of Death, and she makes a deal to exchange her sister’s soul for another soul, so Fressa can come back to life.

Not to mention their village has been encased in darkness for some reason earlier than usual, and apparently the end of days are coming. So that’s another problem.

I feel like Lena had to basically fight against her nature to heal, since she has been the apothecary’s apprentice for years. But under Hela’s deal, she somehow has to bring her a soul. And how else can you bring a soul to the Goddess of Death except… killing? And then the whole Ragnarock thing as well… is Fressa’s soul so much more involved in this apocalypse than everyone thinks? Especially since the knife that their father gave Fressa when he came home somehow lit up at her touch, and gave the message “Master of the Wolf”. Whatever that means, right?



I was just really into this novel, and I’m surprised that I went through this so quickly. I was so intrigued by Lena’s journey, and honestly I don’t know how she was able to go through something like this. Although I do know that if I were in her place, I don’t think I would have done it any different. Maybe certain things that I didn’t agree with, but I would have done whatever it took to get my brother back, especially if I felt like he wasn’t supposed to die. And under the circumstances that Lena found Fressa, there was no way she should have died. It just didn’t make sense.

Apparently this is Tammi’s second book, and while I haven’t read her debut yet, I felt like this was done really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed my journey reading this novel.

Nikki Sojkowski

I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

I was originally interested in this book because the cover is cute and the synopsis is very Norse-Myth heavy. If there’s one thing I love, it’s myths! The context of the story, is that our main character Lena is the eldest child of the village chief, and undertakes a quest when her little sister mysteriously dies. The quest being to bring back her sister’s soul back to Midgard (Earth). 

I was honestly kind of shocked by how dumb Lena was as a character. Is Norse myth not something she grew up with? Wouldn’t she know that her sister’s soul replacement needs to be similar in purity/skill/age/gender in order for this switch to go unnoticed? Lena struggles with finding a soul replacement candidate, when it was pretty obvious from page one what needed to be done. Even when it came to just daily life with scenes with her family and friends it felt like Lena was always 10 steps behind the reader, which shouldn’t be the case when the narrator is not omniscient. It was a genuinely bizarre experience.

Another star-detractor was the whole confusing scenario of Lena and Amal’s relationship. They allow an arranged marriage to each other pretty quickly, even though they supposedly don’t want to be married; and they were also pretty quick to want to kill each other at the slightest suggestion. It was really strange to see childhood best friends keeping secrets and turning on each other in the space of a paragraph. I don’t see how a resolution between our main characters is possible, nor how the climax prevents/delays Ragnorok in any conceivable way. There was a big moment where a magical dagger is lost to another realm, but no importance was ever imbued upon the dagger so why should it being lost have any meaning? It was just a narrative tool to reveal some information about Loki…

That allllll being said, I’m genuinely intrigued by the ending. I think Tammi has set up book two to have a different POV which will most likely make the book more enjoyable, but I’m honestly not sure if I’ll get around to it.

Vanessa Bintou

I love Norse Mythology and I'm always happy to read books related to it. Since I have read a couple of really good books about Norse mythology and a lot average, I have to say that even though The Weight of a Soul had potential it was an average book.
My main problem with the book was the pacing. It was either too slow or filed with too many things that in the end made me confused. Moreover, I really don't like it when things happen with no reason and no explanation and this book had a lot of moments like that. I won't elaborate because spoilers. 
As for the characters, I didn't connect with Lena at all and that made it more difficult to like the book in the end.

I think that this was a book with potential, but the execution and the main character could have been much better!

Thank you to the publisher and the NetGalley for the ARC provided, in exchange for an honest review.

Manon van Heumen

Earc provided in exchange for an honest review.

I mainly was excited about this book because it had Norse mythology and a mysterious death. I was let down by both.
I had hoped there were more Viking-vibes and deeper Norse mythology than just mentioning the gods.
The mysterious death wasn't what I thought it wouls be, though it definitely wasn't bad. The characters were likeable, and the story was okay, I enjoyed reading it.

The Weight of a Soul

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